This is the subtitle of a new book by historian Robert Wistrich (University of Nebraska Press). As a stand-alone, its apparent neutrality gives little away, reminding me of T.S. Elliot’s Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The topic appears cool and analytical, ‘like a patient, etherised upon a table.'

Until, that is, you look at the full title: From Ambivalence to Betrayal.

How do you define a problem with antisemitism that seems to reside in the hazy domain of intellectual subtlety, inferred meaning and suppositions of ill will – so much so that engaging with it threatens to tie even the most experienced brains into knots?

Part of the joy that comes with investigation and research is the intellectual ride. You’ve got your topic. You may even have a working hypothesis to test. You prepare your field of inquiry and formulate your questions.

If it’s a newspaper story, you line up your interviews. If it’s a research paper, you fire up your search engine.

Tonight I begin teaching an eight-week course called “Antisemitism and its Antidotes: From Talk to Action” as a part of a Limmud-inspired, cross-communal study programme in Brighton and Hove called Lishmah Sussex.

I’ve chosen the title for two key reasons, both based on observations I have made over the years.

For all the avalanche of analyses and op-eds since the death of Osama bin Laden, it is essential to remember one thing: antisemitism was at the core of his hatred - and remains the basis of the al Qaida ideology.
Most commentators seek to portray bin Laden as universally hateful - an enemy of Western civilization. But this "universal" also hides a specific truth.

Last month, on a sunny pavement in the Wilhelmsdorf-Charlottenberg section of Berlin, some 40 people solemnly gathered outside a block of tidy, well-scrubbed residential flats on Gieselerstrasse 12. They came to commemorate the memory of seven Jews who were rounded up by the Nazis and sent to their deaths in Auschwitz between 1942 and 1944.

Much as even the casual tracker of antisemitic ‘bimbo eruptions’ could be forgiven for not being able to keep up with the latest Jew-baiting outbursts from high-profile personas, the events of the past week has been downright dizzying their its global array of hate-filled invective.

Reports of antisemitism in the UK are reminiscent of a certain vertigo that used to throw Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign into a state of heightened anticipation. Betsy Wright, Clinton's acerbic adviser and veteran lobbyist, dubbed it waiting for the next "bimbo eruption".

This is an expanded version of the op ed that ran on p. 24 of the JC of 28 January 2011

Reports about antisemitism in the UK are reminiscent of a certain vertigo that used to throw Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign into a state of heightened anticipation. Betsy Wright, Clinton's acerbic advisor and veteran lobbyist, dubbed it waiting for the next 'bimbo eruption.'

Veteran reporter John Ware reporting for the BBC’s flagship investigative programme, Panorama will reveal tonight that more than 40 Saudi-funded Muslim schools and clubs in the UK are teaching the official Saudi national curriculum to about 5,000 pupils.

The programme, British Schools, Islamic Rules, airs tonight on BBC One at 20.30 GMT.

Now that the latest terror threat has been neutralised - with a little help from the Saudis - we've entered the predictable post mortem phase. This is the political scrum in which government, security, intelligence and law enforcement authorities scramble to apportion blame and devise strategies to keep air travel safe.

For British Jews, there are important lessons to grab hold of before lurching reactively to the next security crisis.